The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) (41 page)

-44-

Kane lay on the deck, staring up at the bizarre ceiling. He’d retreated into his mind for much of the trek through the freaky doomsday machine.

Part of him recognized what Oran Rva had done to him. The dominant had stolen much of his wits. That was wrong, just wrong. They had marched through horror, killing alien bio-robots. Kane hadn’t even been able to make love to Meta before the dash into this eerie planet-killer.

Would Oran Rva ever let him enjoy the fruits of his struggle? Kane had begun to suspect not. Instead, Oran Rva was like the trainer long ago on Rollo Glacier. Oran Rva thought to train him into a guard, a killer, an obedient slave of the dominants.

The one named Maddox had just sneered at Kane. That galvanized part of his persona. Maddox owned Meta, had used the beautiful woman. Kane resented that. Maddox was not better than Kane.

How can I regain my wits? How do I break the conditioning? The dominants have programmed me like a machine. That is a crime against my person
.

“I am Kane,” he rumbled. “I am ice.”

Yes, the ice, Rollo Glacier, he remembered long ago as he’d lain on the ice. The trainer had beaten his best friend to death. Kane had watched. That had been an evil spectacle. Hatred had burned in him that day. The ice had numbed his skin and finally his heart. The words
I am ice
had thrummed in his skull. Kane had risen from the ice and endured. He had returned to the world of heat. He had eaten and rebuilt his strength. In time, he had slain the trainer.

No one hurts me and gets away with it. I am Kane. I am ice. These shackles…

As he lay on the deck in the alien doomsday machine, Kane turned his head, staring at the locks on his wrists. His lips twisted with a snarl. Was he a beast? Did others think to master him?

Yes, Oran Rva believes that he is better than Kane. No one is better than me. I will survive.

“Really?” Kane asked himself in mockery. “You’re too stupid to know what to do. You’re a lout, a fool and a dupe. Captain Maddox has beaten you, chained you to the floor and gone to the control room to claim Meta for his own.”

Kane shook his head. “Meta is mine, mine. No one will have her body but me.”

Kane began to thrash on the floor. He roared inside his helmet, struggling to free himself from the chains. Nothing helped. He was too weak to burst them as he desired.

Finally, Kane lay panting on the spongy deck.

“You have to think. You have to use your wits as you did once on Rollo Glacier. The dominant thinks he can keep you stupid. No. I will regain my mind, and I am going to do it
now
.”

Kane closed his eyes. He thought back to the room in the star cruiser. That is where the dominants had begun to program his mind.

As he lay in the doomsday machine, Kane groaned like a wounded beast. Then, he clamped his teeth together. He strove to think, to break the mind conditioning through force of will. He used hatred, stubbornness and finally sheer grit. By remembering what he had been like, he tried to lever himself back into that frame of mind.

Try as he might, though, Kane remained dull-witted.

I have to do something else, something new. What do I have that might work?

Kane struggled for a new concept. The old ways weren’t going to smash through the dominant technology and processes. To do that, he must, must, do what…?

Futility began to eat at him. This was impossible.

Kane sighed, thinking of Meta and the delightful curves of her body, the beauty of her features. He even liked her voice. It did something to him; stirred emotions he hadn’t realized existed.

It dawned on Kane then. Maybe there was a way out of the trap of the programming. If he did nothing, Meta would die. He would never see her again.

Why should I care?

Kane wrestled with the thought, finally concluding it didn’t matter why he should or shouldn’t care. He did. Was that friendship? He had gotten off the glacier for the sake of a friend. No. This was more than mere friendship. Could this be the thing called love?

Kane almost sneered at himself. Instead, he lay utterly still.
Maybe that’s the key. Think what it means that Meta dies.

He did, concentrating on the subject. It bothered him deeply, stirred emotions Kane had no idea existed in him. Sure, love existed for others, but not for he who was ice.

Love is real
.

Something strange settled on Kane’s features. He felt peace in his heart.

I will die having loved
.

“No,” he said aloud. “I will break free because I must save the one I love.”

Gritting his teeth, Kane strove for mastery of his mind. He pushed, teased and began to see new possibilities. Finally, a gleam of the old Kane appeared in his eyes.

Once more, he studied the shackles on his wrists and ankles. Just maybe, he could escape from them, but not by brute force.

Oh…yes, he would have to do it like this…

-45-

Maddox peered around an entrance into a strange chamber. He had no doubt this must be the doomsday machine’s control room.

Along the walls appeared bursts of light in odd sequencing. In a circle were seven crystal spires with mechanisms whirling inside. Lines of energy thrashed from one pinnacle to the next. In the center was a large cube with swirling, hypnotic colors. An octagonal machine sat on top of the cube. Attached to the bulky part of the silvery machine was an inert centipede, the Swarm-Builder mobile virus carrier.

A vacc-suited person backed away from the cube, staring upward. Maddox noticed another suited person, one who hung from the cube by his fingers. Yes, that must be Oran Rva. The tall New Man released his hold. His feet struck the deck, the knees bent and the New Man toppled onto the spongy substance.

“This is it,” the captain told the others. “If I fail to hold him, fire at the taller one.”

Maddox walked into the room with Ludendorff’s flat device in his gloves. Oran Rva stood up. Something must have alerted the New Man of Maddox’s presence. The enemy turned.

Aiming the flat device at the man, Maddox manipulated the controls of the web-force. The New Man froze in place.

“Now,” Maddox told Keith. “Adjust the frequency so we can talk.” He heard static in his headphones as the ace switched their helmets’ setting.

In a second, Maddox heard new breathing. “Meta,” he said.

“M-Maddox?” she asked. “How did you get here? What happened to Kane? Where is he?”

Maddox grinned until Oran Rva drew a knife and came at him. That shouldn’t have been possible. How had the New Man short-circuited Ludendorff’s web-field?

“Shoot him,” Maddox said.

Keith raised a blaster and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Maddox dropped the flat device, drew his own blaster and tried to fire. Absolutely nothing happened.

Oran Rva chuckled as he said, “I’m impressed, hybrid. You’ve done much better than I would have believed. You are a testament to our breeding program.”

“Fan out,” Maddox said. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

“Meta,” Oran Rva said, “to me.”

She didn’t move.

The New Man glanced at her. “Did you hear my command?”

Meta said nothing.

The New Man turned faster than Maddox would have believed possible. Oran Rva’s knife sank through Meta’s armored vacc-suit into her belly. She moaned painfully. With his other hand, Oran Rva shoved her.

Meta stumbled backward, striking a crystal spire and sinking onto the spongy floor.

Oran Rva faced Maddox, with Meta’s blood dripping from his blade.

Maddox wanted to howl with rage, lower his head and charge the fiend from the Throne World. An icy part of him told the captain he would certainly lose if he did that. That was exactly what Oran Rva wanted him to do. He’d never faced a deadlier opponent.

Feeling surreal, Maddox took a viper stick stance. This was awkward in a vacc-suit. Instead of a whippy instrument, he gripped a slarn knife, a length of deadly tri-steel.

“That was a mistake,” Maddox said, his voice hyper-calm.

“Does the pup seek to instruct the wolf?” Oran Rva sneered. “That is poor form, hybrid. I am your better.”

“Which is why you’re trying to eliminate us one by one, right?” Maddox said.

“Why yes, because that is the best tactic.”

Maddox’s eyes narrowed, as did his focus. “I will kill you, Oran Rva.”

“Boasts, Captain?”

“A statement of my intent, rather,” Maddox said.

Out of the corner of his visor, the captain saw Keith. The ace gripped the sergeant’s trench knife with its tungsten knuckles over the vacc-gloves. The pilot stepped hesitantly like someone afraid of knives.

Where was Riker? The sergeant wouldn’t stay out of this. Was Meta alive or bleeding to death?

No. I must remove her from my thoughts.

Maddox refused to dwell on the doomsday machine either. This was the moment of supreme concentration. This would be the duel of his life.

Maddox narrowed his focus onto Oran Rva and the New Man’s blade. It was shorter than the slarn knife. Why had the blaster failed to fire? Why hadn’t the flat device worked for long in this room? There had to be some sort of dampener field in place.

The captain felt it then. The greater Gs. He swished his knife-arm back and forth. There was resistance in the air, and he moved too sluggishly.

“I beat you in the Tannish System,” Maddox said, hoping to goad Oran Rva into making a mistake.

“All is forgiven, hybrid,” the New Man said. “You see, it showed me a greater path. I am taking control of the only war machine that matters now. I am about to become king.”

Maddox emptied himself of emotion, of extraneous thoughts. In the viper stick stance, he began to approach the other. He concentrated on the tip of his knife. The goal of these next few minutes would be to bury it in his opponent’s heart. First, he must test the other. He must gauge the reflexes and cunning.

Oran Rva closed in a similar manner, with the shorter knife thrust low and outward.

Maddox noted the lean features. They were like his, more so than anyone else he’d seen to date. He caught the golden hue of the skin, the intense eyes blacker than sin. He wondered for a second if Oran Rva could have been his father.

“You desire to ask me questions,” the New Man said. “But I say to you: surrender or die, hybrid.”

“You will allow me to surrender?” Maddox asked.

“Put the knife on the deck and—”

“No!” Keith shouted. The ace launched himself at the New Man, moving in slow motion. Keith held the trench knife before him like a shield.

Maddox had hoped to lull Oran Rva. Instead, the captain had demoralized one of his own men into attacking prematurely.

To save Keith, the captain began his attack approach while maintaining the viper stick stance.

Oran Rva spun, moving at Keith and then leaning, thrusting with his long reach. The ace stopped short and slashed down, no doubt attempting to block the enemy knife. Stopping short did more than the blocking move to help save Keith’s life. Oran Rva’s knife-tip touched the armored vacc-suit instead of sinking into it.

Maddox strove to reach Oran Rva in time. The New Man stepped toward Keith. The ace already twisted away, diving for the floor. The tactic led Maddox to believe that Keith hadn’t been blindly charging the enemy, but pretending to be a fool.

Oran Rva came up out of his knife-fighting stance, standing tall. He made a short run at Keith and lashed out with his foot. The boot connected with Keith’s chest. That would have cracked some ribs. The kick propelled the fallen pilot several meters. Worse, Keith went limp, groaning through Maddox’s headphones.

Maddox lunged. Oran Rva spun around impossibly fast in this alien environment. The New Man’s blade clinked against the captain’s, blocking the thrust.

Maddox tried a quick, slashing cut. The New Man blocked that, too. In five seconds, the captain practiced another three attacks. Each time, Oran Rva produced a spark and a notch in the blades as the knives clashed against each other.

Finally, the captain retreated. He saw the gleam in Oran Rva’s dark eyes. A triumphant, cool smile appeared on the New Man’s face.

“I am much better than you are, Captain.”

“Why didn’t you kill me then?” Maddox taunted.

“You figure it out.”

No. Maddox wasn’t going to fall for that gambit. He would not try to overthink this. Knife dueling against a superior opponent was a time for reflexes and swift ploys. To that end, the captain controlled his breathing, watching for an opening. He refused to dwell on the very real possibility that Oran Rva was going to murder the lot of them and take control of the doomsday machine.

A feeling of futility swept through Maddox. Whom was he fooling? The New Man’s strength and speed—the captain shook his head. He could win this. He just had to figure out how.

“Your woman is dying,” Oran Rva said. “I crushed your friend’s chest. Your last companion is a coward, hiding. I suspect he is bewildered.”

“Fine,” Maddox said. “That just leaves you and me. It will make my victory sweeter by winning it alone.”

“Yes,” Oran Rva said. “We are all alone. The weaklings bleat to each other, seeking comfort in this cold universe. We of the Throne World realize that each man is an island unto himself. We strive against each other, seeking honor. I am the dominant here. You are the inferior. Goodbye, Captain Maddox, I thank you for this brief moment of sport.”

The New Man advanced.

Maddox retreated.

Oran Rva chuckled. “Do you think I do not know your tactic? But go ahead, proceed with it.”

Maddox did just that, concentrating on trying to get ready for the right moment to attack.

Suddenly, Oran Rva surprised him. The New Man straightened once more and dashed for a spire. A second later, Riker tried to run away from behind that spire. The enemy strained to reach the sergeant.

Maddox shouted, and he, too, ran, but after the New Man. He knew what Riker had been going to do. Why was he so slow?

Oran Rva closed the distance. At the last moment, Riker stopped and turned, hurling the length of his broken bionic forearm and hand at the New Man, the one Riker had been carrying. The tall man reached out, catching the forearm by the hand. He swung the bionic piece at Riker.

After hurling his forearm, the sergeant had used his left hand to draw a knife, a short one. As he did, Riker looked up. Oran Rva swung the forearm like a sap, hitting the sergeant’s stomach.

Maddox heard the
oomph
. Riker doubled over the forearm. In his other hand, Oran Rva raised his blade.

“Here, Dominant!” Kane roared.

The Rouen Colony man sprinted around another spire. The blocky man now wore regular clothes and an emergency rebreather and goggles. Where was Kane’s armored vacc-suit? The man’s hands and feet were stark red.

It took Maddox a moment to comprehend what he saw. Had Kane wriggled out of his vacc-suit? Yes. That had to be it. How else had the man escaped the restraints, which had been over the suit? It would appear Kane had used an emergency rebreather, letting his skin resist the alien atmosphere inside the ship.

In those brief seconds of thought, several things occurred at once. Oran Rva pivoted and lowered himself into a knife-fighting stance. That allowed Riker to roll out of the way. Then, Kane was airborne, with his fingers hooked like claws.

Oran Rva stabbed upward, the knife sinking into Kane’s chest. Instead of roaring with pain, Kane crashed against the New Man, his weight bearing the golden-skinned man onto the deck.

“Strike, Maddox, while I hold him,” Kane roared.

Incredibly, Kane clutched onto Oran Rva’s knife-arm, keeping the blade buried in his body. The New Man struggled to withdraw the blade. He was doing so centimeter by centimeter.

The New Man let go of the knife-handle, beginning to turn on the floor.

Maddox laid a palm on Oran Rva’s helmet. Then, the captain stabbed the slarn knife into the New Man’s throat. The blade sank, with the tip pushing into the spongy deck. Maddox twisted the knife. Their eyes met then. Oran Rva’s became wide and staring, shocked with agony.

“I killed you,” Kane rumbled. “I killed you because you hurt the one I loved. No one hurts me because I am ice.”

Maddox removed the blade, staring at the bright blood along the length.

Oran Rva began to thrash, gurgling in the captain’s headphones.

“Kane,” Maddox said. “You can let go. I’ll look at your wound.”

The big man moved his head, staring up at Maddox through the goggles as he kept hold of Oran Rva’s knife-hand. “I’m dead, Earthman. Save Meta. She’s why I did this. Save her, Captain. Tell her…”

Maddox stared at the big man. What was Kane trying to say?

The Rouen Colony man’s skin paled. His reddened eyes became haunted and frightened. “Tell her I loved her. You’ll do that…won’t you?”

Shock numbed the captain’s lips. What was this? Kane loved Meta. Anger boiled in Maddox’s heart. Yet, the big man had just acted heroically, saving their lives with his selflessness. It had come from love.

Kane kept staring at him, waiting.

The words seemed to force themselves out of Maddox’s mouth. “I’ll tell her,” he said.

Relief flooded over Kane. Then a sad smile spread across his features. “That was the secret to breaking the conditioning. I did it because of love. I loved her, but I learned that too late. Don’t…don’t be the same kind of fool, Maddox.”

The captain opened his mouth to speak. He wasn’t sure what he would have said. He didn’t have the chance to tell Kane anything more. The enemy agent of the New Men closed his eyes for the last time.

At that point, the hyper-focus left Maddox. The world seemed to expand. The room was shaking, with riotous colors swirling along the sides of the center cube. One of the machine cables—the thing on top of the cube—whipped out and began to thrash. Blue smoke began to trickle from the main housing of the octagonal-shaped Builder device.